


Leather and Gunpowder

by Miss_sunfire



Category: Captain America (Movies), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alchemy, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Avengers Family, BAMF Pepper Potts, BAMF Women, BDSM, Butch/Femme, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Eventual Smut, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Kidnapping, Leather Kink, Medical Experimentation, Multi, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Original Character(s), Period-Typical Homophobia, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-HYDRA Reveal, Protective Natasha Romanov, Recovery, Slow Burn, Smut, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Trans Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-06 02:34:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15184841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_sunfire/pseuds/Miss_sunfire
Summary: A single dose of Dr. Erskine’s revolutionary Serum forever altered the course of history and swung the tide of the war in the allies favor. However, his assassination left the powers that be staggering to catch up and replicate his work. All attempts so far have lead to tragic side effects and destructive rampages. Hydra came the closest. They used his leftover lab materials to create the Winter Soldier, but even they admit whatever flash of mad brilliance created his work is vexingly impossible to copy.However, the world is changing. The ever expanding surveillance powers of the modern US government have given Hydra a new lead. Kept out of all official records but known to a select few of their upper echelon was the existence of the artificer. Erskine’s overlooked lab assistant who was the true architect behind the serum. Hydra scrambles to respond when early tests of Projects Insight’s global facial recognition software show her surreptitiously living in New York 70 years after the war.The cost of secrets will catch up with Anna Neumann and the world will never be the same again.(otherwise known as angst with a heaping helping of OFC having lots of queer, poly, kinky sex with half of the avengers)





	1. Clubbin

**Author's Note:**

> So real talk: I got kinda bored with reading/writing mostly just erotica with minimal plot. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at writing something more substantial. With you know, actual plot, themes, character growth, action scenes and all that jazz. There’s still gonna be (lots of) sex as it’s appropriate but it will be a smaller focus in a larger story. Plus I’ve been huge into marvel fandom the last little while. This being the first time I’ve really done that, I have no idea how it’s going to go, if people are going to like it or how long I’ll be able to keep with it, (plus you know, nerves and anxiety are a thing that gives me procrastination writers block) so I’m experimenting and doing some science all up in this. 
> 
> Some notes for this story: It’s a crossover between FMA with MCU mostly going through the events of CA: Winter Soldier. Mostly it will be following the perspective of an OFC I’ve had kicking about in my head. Also yes you read those tags right. Tony is genderbent and a trans woman, because why the F not. My story, I can do what I want ;) Expect kinky queer sex, poly, poly drama, canon appropriate angst and violence (in line with FMA in particular, so keep that in mind), soulmate shenanigans and thinly veiled attempts to say fuck capitalism. 
> 
> The basic inception for the story is that it’s never really made much sense to me why the super soldier serum was never (successfully) replicated. Woo woo vita rays who knows what they are is BS to me, cause honestly, halfway decent lab notes + funding and interest from dozens of governments, militaries and top scientists for decades? Yeaaaah that experiment is gonna get replicated and mass produced fast. So magic (aka science beyond our ability to explain) seemed like a fitting explanation, and frankly I just love FMA and wanted to fold it into MCU. Plus I never see enough femslash, and I like the idea of combining and crossing over different power sets and rules.

********************************  
With a flash of blinding light she found herself crying in a null void. Wherever she looked was nothing but pure, white emptiness streaking off into infinity. She was clutching a jar of churning red liquid to her chest. Impotent crazed screaming echoed noiselessly within. She realized that despite the lack of any visible anchor beneath her, she was on a stable surface. She pulled herself up to her feet and scanned the space. Looking forward and behind her were two towering gothic doors of stone, hovering ominously.

A wry chuckle echoed throughout the space. Her eyes snapped to the door in front of her and the ghostly silhouette of a formless being sitting calmly beside it. “Poor lost cub. I feel your loneliness, grief, your delicious all-consuming guilt and rage. Kicked and abandoned for what you are, used and exploited by your masters.” The being intoned amusedly, a nasty smirk slowly spreading across the hazy line of lips on its face.

“...but still you stand strong against the world and what it has made you do. So unlike all the others who come to my domain, foolishly seeking to pull friends, lovers and family from the quiet abyss. Unaware of the cost of a soul. Tell me lost cub, what brings you to the domain of truth? What would you bargain of me? The power to fight back against your tormentors? The secrets of the universe? Tell me, what do you seek, what will you pay?” the being queried with an excited chuckle.

The woman swallowed reflexively, thinking. She doesn’t know who this being is, but she knows she shouldn’t trust it. However, it’s not like she exactly has a lot of options to work with. Frankly her entire experiment has been one desperate foolish gamble and she’s flying by the seat of her pants. She takes the gamble.

“Escape. Take me away from Amestris. Send me somewhere far away, where Fuhrer Bradley and the other alchemists will never find me. I won’t trade the stone and I don’t have any money, but I will pay any other price you name”

Truth let out a delighted chuckle and clapped his hands in sadistic glee.

“So be it. The deal is done.” Spoke the being with dull, echoing finality. The woman screamed as a multitude of tiny black hands ripped at her right arm and left leg and an overwhelming series of images spun through her brain. She blacked out as she was pulled through the door behind her.

********************************

_Undisclosed location in Germany during world war 2_

“Tell me again Dr. Erskine, how an unknown handicapped woman infiltrated a hydra lab? Do not forget the price of disloyalty you mutt.” The officer spat.

“S-Sir, I...I have no idea. P-Please, we’ve done everything you’ve asked for, complied with e-every order. I have no idea how she got in. There was just some blue flash of light and she was there. None of us have any idea how to explain it!” An aging man with greying hair stuttered out as he cowered in front of the officers rage.

“No matter. She could have stolen state secrets, why has she not been neutralized?” The officer spat with barely contained rage.

“Herr Schmidt, the w-woman...she brought with her a substance quite unlike anything we’ve seen. The properties are beyond any science we know. Even just applied to animals...the potential for the super soldier program is enormous. W-we thought it l-likely you would want to int-interogate her and f-find out more” Erskine sniveled.

Schmidt rolled his shoulders and took a deep breath, thinking. “Very well, you will meet me in the interrogation room in exactly 15 minutes. Hail hydra!” He ordered.

“Hail hydra!” The professor shakily echoed.

*********************************  
_New York, a few months after the Chitauri Invasion in 2012. Present day._

The lights were dark and low in the room. Concrete walls and floors sprawling off into the darkness of the basement filled with people, tables, booths and hidden alcoves. Soft thumping base rumbled through the dimly lit club, accented by a steady rhythm of soft sighs, harsh squeals and growls. All of which beat in time to the sounds of wood and leather striking flesh.

A resounding smack echoed from the middle of the room as a weighty boot crunched into the soft flesh of a woman’s thigh. The woman was on a her back over a set of gym mats with her legs spread above and her sopping cunt splayed into the air. She was covered in fresh welts and bruises, and her voice was hoarse and husky from squealing at the top of her lungs. She let loose an obscene moan and heaving breath through the harsh impact of the kick.

A devilish grin cracked the stony face of the owner of the boot. The playful yet malicious set of her eye caused the long scar streaking over her right eye to shift unsettlingly. The woman underneath her gulped in intimated fear at the sight. She rolled her toned, muscular shoulders, light brown skin covered in a open calfskin long-sleeved jacket. She cracked her black gloved fingers and ran them through her close cropped white hair.

“Oh little fucking slut likes getting kicked around does she? Does that get you hot, whore?! To be at my feet and crunched underneath my boots?” The dyke growled and accentuated her taunting by grinding the heel of her heavy black leather boot into the legs of her bottom. The girl below her squealed and panted, but transitioned into a long low moan of conflicted pleasure. The dyke pulled back her legs, clad in sinfully tight black leather pants to start laying a series of rough kicks in the bottoms sopping cunt.

The music shifted into a new song and picked up tempo, picking up a crunching baseline and harsh edged melody. The dyke growled loudly and carefully measured her kicks as the bottom under her started to twitch and thrash, letting out harsh gasps of mounting pleasure. “Ah, ah, ah, what do you say little slut?” Cackled the dyke as she gave the bottom just enough stimulation to be on the edge of a painful, overwhelming orgasm.

“P-please Ma’am... Can...can your slut c-come? Please, pleasepleaseplease?!” The squirming bottom managed to pant out between strikes.

The dyke paused momentarily and audibly considered. “Hmmm, I don’t know, I just had these nice boots blacked. It would be a shame to waste all that hard work getting your filthy cum all over them now wouldn’t it? Convince me it’s worth it, slut.” The dyke taunted as she gave her bottom another rough kick to accent her point.

The bottom instantly dissolved into a series of needy mewls, panting pleases and frantic begging. The dyke smirked and let her continue for a couple of tortuously long moments before giving in. She let out a long rumbling purr as she started to rhythmically kick the bottom in her hot slit. She kept her force in tight control, keeping the sensation low and just how she knew the bottom liked it. Really it was more pleasure than pain, though it was still a bit of both. After a few long gasps and moans the bottom under her started screaming and convulsing orgasmically. A series of jets of hot jizz splattered over the mats and her boots. Headless of the mess she gave a last hard kick into her bottoms oversensitive cunt, causing a last tired moan to escape her lips.

“Jeeze, get mess all over the floor why don’t you slut. Fuckin eh that was hot.” The dyke giggled somewhat hysterically and more than a little endorphin drunk. She promptly turned around and flashed a gesture to one of the spectators to the scene. The watching woman nodded and swept into the space, draping a blanket over the bottoms shoulders and cuddling her close, whispering soft praises in her ear.

The dyke somewhat awkwardly hopped a few steps away to give the couple some privacy. She pulled one of her black handkerchiefs out of her back pockets and wiped the cum off her boots. Nodding and grinning to the dispersing audience she made her way over to the bar of the club, needing her own few moments to unwind.

The hair on the back of the dyke’s neck raised as her path towards bar was tracked by a number of keenly attentive eyes in the room. In particular, she noticed a pair of highly attractive redheads sitting by the bar, sipping cocktails and openly ogling the robust swell of her breasts swaying under her skin tight black t-shirt. Despite herself the dyke felt an embarrassed blush creeping up her neck. Her very sharp ear’s mostly unintentionally eavesdropping on a bit of there conversation.

“...hank you so much Nat. I’m so _fucking_ glad you got me out of the office tonight. I needed a break from well, just goddamn everything. Who else could find a club to see scenes that fucking hot. Do you see the goddamn legs on the butch girl with the white hair Nat?! Do you? Holy hell, how do you even get leather pants that tight goddamn on?” The lighter haired redhead in an obviously expensive well tailored black suit slightly drunkenly tittered to the darker redhead beside her.

The darker haired girl, Nat, smirked devilishly and made direct pointed eye contact with the dyke. She seemed dressed more appropriately for the sort of club they were in, with obscenely tight black jeans and a bright red latex collared shirt matching her gorgeous red lips. “Yes Pep, indeed I do, and I am most appreciative of those works of art.” The dyke found herself poleaxed to the ground from the knowing grin creeping across Nat’s face.

Nat briefly turned to Pepper and gave her a playful swat on the arm.“I’m more interested in that gorgeous ass though. If you notice, she’s flagging heavy SM switch. Who knows, maybe one of us could get that lovely rump bent over a chair later tonight?” Nat purred as she turned back and threw a flirtatious wink and sultry lick of her luscious red lips in the dyke’s direction.

The dyke felt her crotch clench as more or less all the blood in her body started moving in a very specific direction and promptly away from her brain. Well and truly blushing, she hurriedly sidled up to the bar beside the pair. The other redhead, Pep apparently, was spluttering adorably, letting out an indignant squak of the others name as she slapped her...friend? Lover? Partner in crime? lightly on the arm.

The dyke quickly ordered a beer and swallowed a steadying mouthful. She turned to the pair and leaned her side against the bar. She plastered a cocky smirk over her face to hide the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. “What’s this I hear about bending someone over a chair? Sounds fun!” She cooed as she wiggled her eyebrows at the pair.

“Didn’t your parents ever teach you it’s rude to eavesdrop?” Squeaked a impressively beet red and embarrassed Pep, over the deep humorous snort of Nat’s.

The dyke blushed deeply and felt her eyes drift to the floor in deep embarrassment. “S-Sorry, I uh, have sharp ears...and well...ah hell, pretty girls makin my tongue get all tied. Shit. I’m sorry, let's start this over again. I’m Anna, nice to meet y’all.” She awkwardly drawled out, dragging a hand over the back of her neck nervously.

“Oh my gosh, you are just so freakin adorable. All tough butch outside with a nervous fluffy inside. Pep, can we keep her? Let’s keep her!!” Nat cooed out as she chortled uproariously.

Anna kept blushing, but a nervous grin started spreading across her features. Pepper for her part seemed to get slightly quiet and taken aback, but turned to face Anna more earnestly. “Hi Anna, I’m Pepper, that’s Natasha, it’s nice to meet you.” She spoke, holding out a hand to shake.

Anna felt the strangest jolting sensation over her left shoulder as she shook Pepper’s hand and started to hear a strange murmuring at the back of her consciousness.

Nat broke the moment, giving Pepper’s arm a playful slap. “Oooh, formal as always Pep, even when you’re hitting on a hot girl. Nice work on the floor there by the way Anna. Should we be distracting you though? Do you need to go check in on your bottom?” She inquired.

Dismissing the sensation, Anna gave Natasha a bashful smile. “Ah, thank you Natasha. It was a fun scene. No worries about distracting me though. Leila’s an old friend of mine. She hates the headspace whiplash of having the mean sadist bitch turning into a cuddle monster after a scene. So we negotiated that her wife handles the aftercare and putting her back together afterwards.” She hesitantly explained.

The other women quirked an eyebrow curiously at her. “Who handles your aftercare though? Tops need to be put back together too. It can be tough being that mean if you don’t have somebody to ground you back down afterwards.” Inquired Pepper in an oddly strident tone. Like she had some significant investment in the answer.

“Oh, uh...I’ve always been pretty self reliant. Sure, I get a bit keyed up after a scene, but I usually just wait it out. Take care of myself when I get home. You know, put on some jazz, grab a beer, and just...relax and stare at the stars. Come back down to earth slowly and all that.” Anna explained, nervously rubbing her hand along the back of her neck. Man, she really had to get that tell under control in front of pretty ladies. She felt a bit like a teenager again, even as she giggled internally at the ridiculousness of the thought.

Pepper frowned and huffed a bit, but sighed. Anna had the oddest sensation of annoyance and disappointment at the back of her head. “Well, I guess you know yourself and what you need better than anyone. I certainly wouldn’t accept that, but I won’t judge. So, tell me about yourself Anna?” Pepper asked abruptly in an inquisitorial manner.

Anna grinned at the topic shift and let out a amused huff. “Well, what’s to tell really? I’m just a simple New York gal, trying to get by after all the craziness with the aliens and the world ending and whatnot. I actually own a tattoo shop not far from the tower. Got lucky enough to still have it more or less in one piece.” She animatedly described.

“Oh, please tell me you’re not talking about Adrenaline. One of the girls in accounting got an owl done on her shoulder there and had the worst goddamn infection.” Natasha angrily cut in.

“Oh fucking god no. I wouldn’t send my worst enemy to Adrenaline. The sanitation standards are bad enough, but the artists themselves? They could botch a fucking straight line. Amateurs. Mine’s a bit smaller. Runic circle body mods is the name.” Anna plead as she let out a conspiratorial laugh.

“Wait, the name rings a bell…” Pepper said, pausing to consider.

“Wasn’t that the place all the Disney starlets went to get their ‘I’m an adult and I can be sexy now’ tramp stamps done a while back? The place with the super long waitlist and exclusive clientele? Won a bunch of awards or something if I remember.” Natasha supplied.

Anna cheeks blushed endearingly and she shuffled awkwardly on the spot. “W-well, I mean, yes, I technically did those d-designs. Those were probably the least rewarding pieces of work I’ve done in years though. Both artistically and emotionally.” She stammered out.

“Artistically and emotionally?” Nat quizzed with a raised eyebrow.

“I uh… I mean, I’m mostly in the business because I like it and it makes me feel fulfilled. Doing large canvas pieces over an entire back, incorporating different art styles and techniques, those pieces are artistically challenging and help me grow. But, you know, even simple pieces can be meaningful and moving. I’ve done a lot of work with veterans and cancer survivors. You know, adding simple art work to incorporate the scars of the past into something beautiful. To move forward and do better. Those are the pieces I actually care about.” She declared with a hint of fire in her eyes.

Nat gave her an intense assessing stare but gave a slight nod of approval after a moment of hesitation. Pepper’s face lit up and flashed a beaming grin at her. Anna got the strangest sense of pride coming off the woman...it was almost like...no, there’s no way, she had to have left her soulmates behind ages ago. It just wasn’t possible.

“So uh, I feel like I’m kinda running the conversation right over you guys. What about you, tell me about yourselves” Anna asked.

The two women exchanged a look, Pepper blanching a bit and looking oddly nervous. They rallied after a second though. “Well, uh, I guess I’d say I work in the tower, thankfully not uh, around when the whole thing went down though.” She answered.

Anna was just opening her mouth up to respond as an impossibly loud reverberating explosion ripped through the club. Screams rose into a sudden echoing cacophony in the cramped space. Anna found the wind knocked out of her as she was smashed into the bar by the pressure and fire from the front door. A squad of men in black unmarked tac gear barreled into the room afterwards and started firing wildly, shouting for people to get down and stay where they were.

Still dazed, Anna found a set of strong hands pulling her up and behind the bar for cover. She found herself blinking on the ground next to Natasha and Pepper. Nat had pulled a handgun from seemingly nowhere and was peering over the bar, assessing the attackers.

“Looks like 8, no 10 of the fuckers. Possible reinforcements still to come. How the hell did they even know we were here? Pepper, hit the panic button. Get backup.” Natasha whispered angrily.

“Remember boys, mission objective is to recover the artificer, all others expendable. Spread out!” Came a shout from the apparent leader of the group. They started fanning around the club, poking their guns in patrons faces and giving them a once over before moving on. A couple of the goons started approaching the bar as Natasha started firing, dropping one of the soldiers. Suppressing fire slammed into the bar, pushing her back down.

Anna felt the bottom drop out of her stomach and a cold, cloying fear settled into her bones. She took a series of deep breaths to calm her pounding heart and willed herself to settle into a long dormant headspace. One of blood and death, calm and deadly precision even through the shouting, pain and tears of the battlefield. Her face drained of expression and her muscles tensed, ready for action.

She needed a plan. She had to get out, couldn’t let them get her again. Couldn’t let them destroy the life she’d built here, or slaughter her friends looking for her. Her mind raced and time seemed to slow. Really, it was all very simple. Step 1. Get armed. Step 2. Protect the civilians. Step 3. Kill the bastards.

She forcefully clapped her hands together and slammed them to the ground. Flashes of electricity sparked around her, briefly lighting up the club as material from the concrete floor was pulled up and reformed. She focused carefully, picturing all the tiny details on a pair of well worn and used objects that she had formed time and time again.

A second later she snatched her newly made handgun and combat knife on the ground. She Palmed the knife in an icepick grip in her left hand, with the gun in her right. The gun was an old design, all outdated heavy metal parts, but reliable, familiar in her hands and loaded. Step 1, check.

Next she stole a glance over the bar, well trained eyes picking out dozens of tiny details. Searching through the warren of tables and booths throughout the space had slowed the progress of the attackers. Most of the patrons had run to the back entrance, but the focus of the soldiers was squarely on Nat for the moment. She’d taken out the three goons who had approached the bar, but needed to stop to reload.

Mind forming a quick plan to protect the civilians, she clapped her hands together and to the ground again. Again the electricity flashed, this time causing the ground to ripple and deform in a line between her and the far side of the club. A foot thick wall of concrete sprung up between the soldiers and the screaming mass of club goers. Step 2, check.

Anna let a feral grin spread across her features. “Now for the fun part.” She whispered. She vaulted over the bar in one smooth motion. Sprinting towards a pillar that would give her some cover from the soldiers, she fired a series of shots into the closest mass of soldiers. Two soldiers had shots slam into their chests, but they only grunted before firing back. She cursed as she hid behind her pillar while bullets sprayed around her. Goddamn kevlar.

“We need her alive assholes! Stop shooting at the target! Get up close and take the bitch down!” Shouted the leader of the thugs. Anna smirked as she heard two of the soldiers advancing on her far flank ahead of the rest.

Anna sprung from her cover and popped a shot into the closest goons face, dropping him instantly with his brains splattered on the floor behind him. The other leapt forwards and swung a baton sparking with some sort of electricity at her. She sidestepped, dropping her gun to grab the back of his hand in her right, locking his arm in place as she slammed her knife into his throat. The second soldier crumpled to the ground gurgling.

Adrenaline pounding in her ears she spun, seeing another goon coming up behind the other side of the pillar. Springing on him she broke his nose under a devastating right jab. She followed it up by flipping her knife grip and stabbing him under the armpit, puncturing his lung.

Anna was riding high, feeling smug and splattered in the blood of her enemies, but she made a mistake. She’d missed the original pair that attacked her was actually a trio. She felt a baton jab into her back, causing crackling pain to explode through her body. Her muscles seized, and she crumpled to her knees as a scream ripped from her throat.

Blindly, she managed to spin and swipe her knife at the offending soldier. She scored a deep slice through his thigh. She was idly sure the strike had hit a major artery and the soldier didn’t have long before he bled out. She didn’t have long to wonder before he managed to stab the stun baton in her chest as he fell to his other knee.

The smell of burning cloth and singed skin filled her nostrils. Her world became electric fire and shooting pain as she fell to the floor, muscles limp and useless. The world seemed to narrow and go dim. She was vaguely aware of being dragged towards the door, gunshots still resounding between the soldiers and the bar.

“Target acquired. Resistance higher than expected, falling back to rendezvous point.” Were the last shouted words she was aware of before she felt a prick in her neck and the world started going black.

“Fucking shit.” Were her last mumbled, slurred, words as she sunk into oblivion.


	2. Mad as Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter or 2 start earning the series warnings for violence. For those it might affect, more or less this and the next chapter feature a pissed as hell super-powered combat veteran cutting her way out of a hydra base and going on a rampage. You have been warned.

***************************************   
Avengers tower, present day

Toni was, if she was being honest with herself (which she rarely, if ever was), a bit of a hot mess right now (or her entire life). 

Sure, the billionaire, playgirl, philanthropist, motherfucking world saving superhero had an objectively good life. More money than god, a squadron of superhero comrades to get roaring drunk with, and a wonderful loving soulmate in Pepper motherfucking Potts. What's to complain about?.

She still couldn’t get more than an hour or two of fitful sleep a night though. Every time her eyes closed all she could see were horridly unnatural slices in space swallowing her up, stealing her breath, and crushing her lungs in the cold void. On a good night, she’d have a more distant vision of the slow cloying pain of palladium filling her chest, helpless to stop her life slipping away from her. Being reckless and self destructive, drunk as a skunk on a racetrack. Disappointing even her most tolerant of friends, pushing them away like the hurricane of bad decisions that she is. It just doesn’t stop. 

So she chugs coffee and red bull like they’re fucking water. She buries herself in project after project. The cleanup after the battle, Iron maiden upgrades, fixes for the tower security system, monitoring devices for bifrost activity, you name it. She just wants to feel safe for goddamn once, but it just doesn’t seem to work. 

Pepper (fucking goddess that she is) has been trying to help. She keeps booking her appointments to talk to a therapist. Begging her to talk to someone, anyone, and open up. Staying with her most nights. Cuddling her close and sending calm and safety through the soulbond. Honestly, Pepper alone is probably the reason she’s been able to get even what little sleep she can. She can’t imagine what she’d do (beside fall apart) if she lost her. 

She secretly thinks Pepper’s right. That this is out of her control and she needs somebody else to help ground her back to earth. She tries, really tries, to go to the appointments. She hovers in front of the door, trying to will herself to take that next step, but she never can. 

Everytime she tries she cringes as an image of Howard flashes through her mind. Upraised hand flying through the air at her face, angry spittle flying from his lips. ‘Foolish boy! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?! Starks solve their own problems!! Be a fucking man and fix that broken brain of yours on your own. Don’t. embarrass. Us. again.’ Shouting from his lips.

...So, when Jarvis cuts her music and announces that “Ma’am, Ms. Potts’s panic button has been activated. It seems there’s been an attack on the club she and Ms. Romanov were attending.” Toni isn’t entirely sure whether or not she’s hallucinating from lack of sleep. Either way, she’s already running, despite the crushing exhaustion. 

Everything in her body aches, deep bruises show under her eyes, her eyes pound with tension and she almost starts to hyperventilate. There is no thought in her brain beyond immediately finding Pepper and making sure she’s safe (well, and murdering any responsible for causing her harm). Forcing herself to calm down and her hands to stop shaking she sprints up to her launch platform and dons the suit. She’s off like a rocket less than five minutes after Jarvis’s message as he relays real time location data and directions to the suits feed. 

Dimly she’s aware of Jarvis setting up comms and alerting the other avengers still in the tower. Clint and Steve are asking for sit rep’s and transportation. Bruce just asking if everything is alright. 

Toni pushes all those thoughts from her brain as she nears the end of the directions and touches down in front of a smoking building. Her soulbond is screaming exhaustion, residual fear and firm resolution at her. She spots Pepper in the crowd, guiding people out of the building. Pepper’s smeared with soot, dirt and a little blood, but standing strong like the fucking collected badass that she is.

Toni leaps up to her and crushes her into a hug, careful (with the help of Jarvis’s automatic systems) not to injure her. Her faceplate flips up and she’s distantly aware that she’s blabbering and crying (though she’ll never admit that, and will spend hours erasing any surreptitious cell phone footage to that effect). “Pep, Pep, love, are you okay?! What happened? Who do I need to kill?”

Pepper squirmed and squaked in Toni’s strong metallic grip. “Toni, put me down, down now! You’re clogging up the evacuation!” She spouted indignantly. 

“I don’t care, are you okay? Did they hurt you?!” Toni shot back with a look of simmering rage.

“I’m fine. Totally fine. They weren’t even after us. Nat was with me, were fine. Hell, the assholes who blew up the place took it way harder than us. Most of them were killed anyway.” She frantically reassured. 

Taking a series of deep calming breaths, Toni very carefully placed Pepper back on the ground. She looked her deep in the eyes. “What do you need me to do sweetheart. How can I help?” She asked. 

“Toni, I need you to listen very carefully. I know your feelings on the matter, but a civilian was kidnapped in the attack. I think she’s our third Toni. We have to save her from whoever attacked the club. Nat’s already running a trace on their vehicle, but we need to put Jarvis on it pronto.” She ordered with a serious look on her face.

Toni clenched her fist and bit her lip, biting back a scream and trying to avoid punching a hole in the wall. Of all the fucking things she was expecting to hear after that call, finding their goddamn third was not fucking it. She steadies herself for a few seconds before responding in a shaky voice. 

“Okay. Jarvis, connect with Natasha on it, let's get this done.”

********************

Anna was standing on the side of a dark moonlit road above a deep earthen ditch. Two men, soldiers in classic green US army vintage uniforms stood in front of her. The colors were muted, washed out, but oddly vivid in places. She was drifting, dreaming. 

Her attention snapped to the taller soldier, shark like grin flashing over his oily face. “I'm gonna say this nice and slow, for you to understand, bitch! Tell us how to make more of Erskine's serum. Now!” He viciously spat as he backhanded her face. Blood splattered from her split lip.

A groggy memory came to Anna. Right, Erskine was assassinated. These men wanted to serum (assuming she understood them correctly, her English was spotty at best at the time after all) and she couldn't give it to them. Erskine used the last of it, and to make more...no, she shuddered. Whatever was to come that secret would not pass her lips. 

“I-I Kant, c-can’t? Is word, yes? Too difficult.” She stuttered out, deciding to play dumb. Hoping they would just accept she was just a coffee fetcher.

Pain shot through Anna as a series of three shots rang out in the night air. A bullet slammed into her chest, filling her lungs with hot blood. Two more slammed into her gut as blood started choking out her lips. Her vision danced with black spots as she stared at the shark like man, smoking pistol in hand, as he laughed uproariously. 

Her strength gave out and she tumbled backwards into the ditch without a word. Pain, vicious and burning raced through her as she crashed against the ground. She tried to breathe but only choked on coagulating blood. Through a haze of agony she forced herself to lie still. Accept the pain, embrace her penance and hope to survive. 

“Fucking stupid kraut dyke. Goddamn making us drag her all the way out here. How Erskine got the general to agree to bring her onto project rebirth I'll never know. Glad we’re finally allowed to wash our hands of the bitch.” The soldier bantered with his friend.

Dimly Anna was aware of them walking to the back of their jeep, grabbing buckets of dirt. They dumped them on her, sparking yet more vicious burning as it got in her wounds. Hiding the body. They were hiding her body she realized. Making it less likely for someone to see her, passing on the lonely road outside of New York. She grit her teeth and bit back a scream, forcing herself to lie still as a corpse. Dirt got into her eyes, her mouth, choking her, smothering her. 

She drifted. Diving into a deep painless void for as long as she could before being returned to her broken body. She couldn’t say how long she lay there, waiting for the soldiers to go away, trying not to breathe or move. 

Eventually she forced herself to grasp the thread of consciousness and pulled herself back into awareness. She prayed that the dirt covering her was not too thick. She used all her strength to force her wobbling hands up just enough to bring them together on top of her chest. Gritting through the pain she called on a simple alchemical reaction to explode the dirt covering her outward and away. 

The movement jostled her wounds and she finally screamed, long and loud like the dying animal she was. She tried to sit up, but the shifting of the bullets in her chest and stomach made her retch with pain. Thoughts groggy but focused, she devised another quick alchemical reaction. 

Transmuting a substance into something completely different took a lot of energy and focus, but wasn’t impossible. Especially for her. She placed her hands over the aching wound in her shoulder and channeled energy into the bullet. She let out a guttural moan of pain as it was converted to rapidly expanding gases. The reaction tore the wound painfully, but did manage to get rid of the bullet quickly and without tools. 

Fighting with every ounce of her strength to remain conscious she repeated the process on the holes in her stomach. She took a last shaky choking breath before the blackness took her once again.

**********************************************

Undisclosed Location, after the attack on the club

Anna slowly drifted back to consciousness. Her mouth was dry, her muscles sore and there was a pounding headache between her eyes. Dimly she started to remember what happened. Right, there was an attack on the club, someone found her again, they drugged her. 

Carefully, trying not to move and let anyone know she was awake yet she cracked and eye and took stock of the situation. Looking down she saw she’d been stripped nude and left on a small cot. Her hands were bound in handcuffs, her right automail arm made of bulky interlocking metal plates. She tried not to react as she realized the handcuffs only had a chain between them. She could easily bring her hands together to transmute. Her eyes took a quick glance over her bronze skin. Noting the highly complicated series of tattoos running up and down her body. A series of hundreds of small, intricate black circular shapes all merging together into an pointillistic representation of the claws of a lion curling over her shoulders to her breasts. The full lion was depicted as roaring on her back while more abstract but still beautiful designs ran the length of her muscled arms and right flesh leg. She bit back a smirk; each circle was a backup transmutation circle and all of which were fully functional. Clearly whoever her captors were, they didn’t know the extent or specifics of her abilities. 

The woman spun her gaze through the rest of the room. It was a sparse concrete cell, with only a cot for her to sleep on, a thick looking metal door and a security camera above it being the only noteworthy features in the concrete room. There was no way of knowing how long she’d been there, but given that she didn’t feel particularly hungry she thought it wasn’t too long. Perhaps they didn’t realize she had an enhanced metabolism and would recover from what they drugged her with faster than expected. 

Taking a moment to think through her situation she realized she had a golden opportunity. Her kidnappers did not know the extent or strength of her abilities and had not taken sufficient precautions against her. She was rapidly feeling better as her body cleared whatever drug they gave her. The pain and the headache were rapidly abating. 

Anna knew from long experience that things would likely only get worse. Even if she was able to keep the advantage of her powers secret, there were other ways to beat her down. Simply by denying her sufficient food they would make her weaker and make escape less and less possible. While it might be helpful to know something of the base layout, escape routes and guard shift changes, she had no intention of avoiding them and slipping out the back door. 

No, she was a soldier, she doesn’t do any of this covert shit. These fuckers were going down and they were going down hard. Grab the bull by the horns while the iron was hot and all that jazz. 

As she was psyching herself up, the door cracked open and three dusty and bruised soldiers in black athletic gear walked in. The bigger, meaner looking one in the center with a brutish strong face spoke up first. 

“Oh good, the bitch is already awake.” He said with an unsettling smirk. 

“Guess so, what're you? My welcome to the neighborhood committee?” She snarked back. 

He huffed a small laugh. “No, we’re just the schlubs who got paid to bring you in. Only, us schlubs don't get paid enough for dealing with messes like that op. You know how many of our boys you and your friends killed bitch? Way too goddamn many is what. So I says to my noble brothers in arms here, what say we get some extra compensation from the merchandise?” The soldier growls out in an angry voice, going low and husky as he finishes his monologue. He accents his point by walking closer to loom over Anna’s cot and popping the top button on his pants. 

Anna feels her heart start to speed up as adrenaline floods her system. Her muscles tense in preparation to spring. “Seems fair, I mean, you guys did the hard work of kidnapping me after all.” She drawled out sarcastically. 

The soldier’s grin spreads further across his strong face. He lets his pants fall to the floor as he steps yet closer. Anna waits until he's practically hovering over her. Her enhanced senses let her pick out every pore on his ugly face. She smells his lunch on his hot breath, and the gaggily powerful cheap cologne he uses. She sees he’s trying to cover a limp from an injury on his right leg as the muscles shift just slightly wrong. 

Timing her moment, Anna pulls her hands out, snapping the chain of the cuffs in a fluid motion. She cocks back a short but vicious punch. Her metal right arm crunches viciously into his windpipe, collapsing it. The man lets out a sickening wheeze as he topples to the ground, hands going to his throat as he squirms on the floor. Anna wastes no time in jumping to her feet over him and going into a boxer’s defensive stance. 

The other soldiers let out an alarmed shout. The closer of the two recovering first as he steps in to deliver a heavy punch. He puts too much force into the blow and the result is far too telegraphed. She see him, almost in slow motion as the muscles in his shoulder ripple and let out there energy to propel the fist forward. The woman dodges in a flash, one hand grabbing his forearm and another his upper arm. She spins, pulling the man off his feet and slamming him into the wall. His nose shatters on the concrete and she snaps his arm out of it’s socket. 

As the man is howling in pain she turns back to the last assailant. She moves her hands together and a long blade shoots out the top of her automail arm. The soldier uses her moment of distraction to actually land a solid punch on her face, splitting her lip and knocking her into the wall. She growls, quickly launching herself off the wall to impale the soldier with her arm before throwing him across the room. He crumples into an unmoving heap on the floor. 

Her lip is already starting to close when seconds later alarms are starting to sound. She performs a quick and dirty transmutation to pull up a several foot thick wall of concrete in front of the door before more guards can enter through. The wall crushes the security camera as an added bonus. She casually finishes off the still squirming and moaning guards before transmuting the blade back to normal. 

Anna takes a moment to formulate a quick plan. She went off half cocked at the club. Barely armed, desperate, in poor tactical conditions. Right now she’s naked, alone in an unknown enemy stronghold, covered in blood and unarmed. Her only advantage is time; The guards shouldn’t be able to find a way through the door for several minutes.

She lets a devilish smirk part her lips. It’s all she needs after all. She’s the artificer, fabrication is her specialty. 

The dyke starts going through a series of impossibly complicated transmutations, completely reshaping material from the walls into other more useful forms and elements. Steel for weapons, wood for stocks, linen for clothes, plastics for zippers, brass for buttons, leather for straps and buckles, she makes them all as her hands and mind spins. She spins and combines dozens, hundreds of small intricate pieces and components. Slowly over the course of minutes a small arsenal begins to take place in front of her. 

Anna slips on a pair of comfortable tac pants with extra ammo pouches, as well as a comfortable pair of combat boots. Her top is clad in a black sports bra and tank top. The woman straps weapon holsters on her belt and over her shoulders, with yet more pouches for extra ammo. She completes her clothing with a thick leather jacket, perhaps enough to blunt a knife slash. 

For weapons she has multiple knives strapped to her body, with pistols and extra magazines in both holsters. She has a heavy older semi-automatic rifle strapped over her shoulder, and devotes most of her ammo pouches to carrying extra magazines for it. Goddamn Kevlar after all. She wants to keep it as quiet as possible at first, so her first pick is a sharp edged thrusting sword in her right hand, with complementing long knife in her left. 

Anna huffs a breath and mentally steels herself. “Fuckin eh. Rip and tear, time to give em hell.” She whispers to the empty room. The alchemist activates a transmutation circle on her foot, lifting her up on a pillar of concrete. She performs another quick transmutation to open up a hole in the ceiling before slipping into the floor above her cell and stalking in search of prey.


	3. Tonight at 11: Local Women Too Pissed off to Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> rampaaaaaaaaageeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

********************************************

_Avengers tower, Present Day_

You might not know it if you didn't know her well, but Natasha was burning with a deep, cold rage as she strode back into the tower. She knew some of her barely contained frustration was leaking through her bond with Clint. The archer visibly paled as he took in the hard hard glint in her eyes and asked how her hunting expedition went.

“I followed the tracker on the getaway car to an old junkyard just outside of town. They must have changed vehicles, but the feed from the security cameras were corrupted. I shook down some of my contacts, but nobody will talk about who is behind it or claim responsibility for the attack. Let us hope that Stark has something of actual use.” The spy replied tersely before she strode off into their bedroom.

Natasha was aware of the man shuffling nervously at the door as she entered and began striping off her blood and dirt stained club wear. “Hey Tasha, are you alright?” He tentatively voiced.

Steeling herself and violently pushing away her frustration over her failure, she turned to face him. “Yes my mate, I am fine. I will however, be taking a micro nap until we have some actual actionable intelligence.” She whispered softly, with maybe a bit more vehemence than was strictly necessary. The woman padded softly to the bedroom, pulling a tight shirt over her head and shorts on her legs. She laid her sidearm and knife on the bedside table, before sliding into bed.

Clint, ever the adorable goof that he was, whined softly and followed her into the bedroom. He stopped short, looking askance at her from beside the bed. She let a smirk pass her face as she patted the covers beside her. “Yes, yes, kotyonok, come here.” She said, well aware that the man was basically an overgrown cat. He became all cuddly and clingy whenever she was upset or a mission went wrong.

Clint curled into her arms while he started nuzzling her shoulder and purring softly. The woman let her fingers comb through his soft blond hair as she huffed a long suffering sigh. She relaxed as much as she was able to and let her eyelids briefly flutter closed.  

An hour later saw Natasha and Clint running to the war room after the avengers alarm was sounded. The rest of the avengers in varying levels of dress and battle readiness. Toni immediately took the floor, looking exhausted but determined.

“Alright, so here’s what we know super friends. Late last night an unknown set of goons attacked a local club Pepper and our resident super spy were attending. To the eternal shock and surprise of all involved, they weren’t the targets. Whoever our rent-a-cops were, they kidnapped a woman by the name of Anna Neumann. She runs a local Tattoo parlor, but as far as a quick background check can see, there’s nothing actually suspicious about her. Maybe a surprising number of IRS audits, but nothing illegal or noteworthy.” She explained animatedly.

“Ma’am, I hate to interrupt, but why have us all assemble? Last I heard, kidnappings were more a job for the police? If it was truly an accident that Pepper and Natasha were involved, why not let them handle it? ” Asked a very disheveled and tired looking Captain Rogers.  

“Well, Mr. spangly tight pants. According to widow’s report, Anna seemed to be enhanced in some way. No idea what as of yet though. Seems like an ability to move and reshape large chunks of stone in some way. Regardless...there’s also a very high likelihood that she’s...that is, er...Pepper and I’s...other soulmate.” The woman hesitantly explained, losing some of her cocky bravado towards the end.

A shocked silence settled into the room that hung awkwardly. Toni shuffled once before plastering an awkward grin on her face. “Soooo, yeah, moving right along. Plan is to find her and bring her home safe. Talk about the rest later. I’ve had jarvis working on tracking the getaway car and looking through likely hideouts near the city. Our best guess is…” She paused, pawing on a tablet before a video feed of a dark military base began to hover mid air.

The team leaned in, inspecting the feed. “We got lucky, a satellite happened to be flying overhead last night and caught video of a set of cars coming into this compound. It’s an old abandoned SHIELD base, only not so abandoned anymore. Jarvis has discretely checked in with the army, FBI, SHIELD and CIA, and by checked in I mean hacked. None of them claims ownership of it, so we believe it belongs to our mystery bad guys.” She continued, tabbing through again she brought up an older video. It showed a person being dragged out of a van into the compound with a bag over their head, totally unconscious.

Rogers passed a hand through his hair and let out a sigh. “Okay, let's suit up and get this done. We go in hard and fast. Before they have a chance to hurt the hostage. Toni, you’re on air cover. I’ll lead the assault, with Hawkeye on fire support. Widow, you're with me. Banner will stand by on the jet, just in case. Wheels up in 15.” He ordered. A wave of nods passed through the room, and people turned to go grab their equipment.

Just after the quinjet was taking off they were interrupted by a mechanical voice. “Ma’am, I hate to interrupt, but you’re receiving a call from SHIELD STRIKE team delta. They’re sending a notification that they’ll be assaulting the same objective and request the Avengers stand down.” Informed Jarvis in an urgent tone.

Toni quirked an eyebrow. “Okay, now that’s strange. What does Mr. Patchy want, and how in the hell did he get our mission specs already. Widow, Hawkass, do you know about this?” She snarked.

Natasha just shot back an blank stare. “Neither of us leaked anything if that’s what you’re worried about. I presume were going after your soulmate anyway?” The spy responded and finished with a raised eyebrow.

“10 points for slytherin!” The engineer sassed back.

************************************

Undisclosed Military Base, Present Day

As Anna hopped out the hole in the roof of her cell she started straining her enhanced senses looking for threats. Despite the blaring alarm, she counted three, maybe four groups of footsteps shuffling or walking on the floor. She heard two distinct groups down a set of long parallel hallways further into the facility. She also heard a pair of guards, shuffling awkwardly just around the corner from the storage room she popped out in.

Planning a first stop for information she approached the door and eyed around the corner. A pair of black clad guards carrying assault rifles stood in front of the door to the nearby stairwell. There backs were turned and guns pointed downstairs, guarding just in case a prisoner managed to escape up a level.

She padded as softly across the floor as possible and snuck up behind the guards. The piercing alarm helped blot out any residual noise. Once she was close she struck, quick as a snake, wrapping her arms around each soldier. The dyke pulled them close together, sticking the point of her knife under the throat of one, and the edge of her sword under the other. Their startled yelps were cut off by her crushing hold.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to ask you a question and you’re going to answer. Hesitate and I will kill you. Now, where do you keep the belongings you steal from your prisoners?” Anna hissed vehemently into their ears.

The older, taller soldier laughed. “Go fuck yourself, I’m loyal. Hail hydr-” he started to shout before Anna’s knife sliced his throat. She let him collapse to the ground as blood splattered the wall and started to spread across the floor.

“Jesus fuck!” The younger one whisper shouted.

“Now, I’ll ask again. Where do you keep the belongings you steal from your prisoners?” Anna repeated as she spun the soldier and lifted him up against the wall, sword at his throat.

“I-i-it’s a-across the hallway on this floor, room b540. I-I’ll take you there, i-if you like!” He stuttered out, literally pissing himself in fear.

“No need, I’ve got it.” She deadpanned as her sword sliced through his jugular and he collapsed in a heap of blood and acrid urine. Blood splattered her jacket, but she paid it no mind as she sidled up to the closer of the two hallways connecting the floor. Listening closer she heard a set of footsteps shuffling closer. Guards, probably on a patrol of the floor. She crouched down and waited by the hallway entrance until they walked close.

Anna sprung around the corner and whipped her sword at the guards. Two were walking in front and two in back. The closest guard on the right took a nasty slash to his chest and was thrown against the wall. The rest stood dumbfounded as her knife hand flashed out, stabbing the left guard under the armpit lethally. He whined in pain, slumping his back against the wall as his lifeblood left him.

The guards in the back started to get their feet under them, moving to raise their rifles. However, they were too close. She brought the pommel of her sword down on the left guards face. A sickening crunch filled the room as his skull broke and he collapsed to the ground. In a smooth motion she followed through and slashed her blade through the throat of the last remaining guard. He let out a last gurgle as he slumped to the ground.

For good measure, she gave each guard an extra stab to the chest to finish them off before stalking further down the hall. She passed by a series of doors to windowless rooms, but ignored them as she searched for her objective. Room B540. She reached a junction connecting her hallway to the other. Pausing she heard another set of guards coming down, in a more spread out formation.

Again, she waited, and again she sprung out when they grew close. She cut down the first soldier with a wicked slash before burying her sword in the chest of the second. This time however, the guards behind were more alert and further away. They barked a word into their radios as they opened fire.

Anna used the guard impaled on her sword as a shield as she ran at the other two guards. She felt stings of pain as bullets grazed her shoulder and leg, ripping through the corpse of the soldier she carried. Without breaking stride she simply rammed her guard into one of the other soldiers, impaling them both on the sword. The last remaining guard stopped firing as he stared, dumbfounded.

His hesitation cost him dearly. Her right arm now empty, she simply balled her metal fist and slammed a vicious punch into his face. She heard a visceral crack as his jaw broke under the heavy prosthesis. He dropped his gun and tried to throw a punch but she simply ducked under it and thrust her dagger into his chest. It got lodged in his ribcage and jerked out of her grip as he fell to the ground.

She stood up and cracked her jaw. “Well, stealth was never really my forte anyway, let’s go loud.” The alchemist snarked as she rolled her rifle off her shoulder. Sprinting down the hallway she kept an eye on the room numbers. As she neared room b540 she edged around the corner on the other side of the hallway.

A pair of guards opened fire, bullets chipping chunks of concrete from the wall, and she ducked back around the corner. Faster than should be entirely possible she whipped back out at a new angle and pulled the trigger on her rifle twice. Large calibre bullets slammed into the chests of both soldiers, effortlessly punching through their kevlar armor. Blood stained the wall behind them as they slumped to the ground, dead.

She smirked in amusement. Sure, the smaller rifle rounds armies issued these days may be easier to carry in larger amounts. They also had far lower recoil to support automatic fire. However, there’s something to be said for the raw stopping power of the outdated ammunition she made just for this occasion.  

Anna didn’t waste a second as she knew more soldiers wouldn’t be far behind. The dyke ran up to room b540. Rather than bothering with the lock, she simply transmuted a hole in it and stepped through. She entered a room filled with dozens of filing cabinets, labelled by number. She ran through the room, finding a cabinet marked “intakes” and popped the door open.

Inside was a set of papers she briefly leafed through. One was titled “Hydra Intake: Anna Neumann. Codename: The Artificer. Top Secret.” It had a creeper photo of her walking down the street. Her heart lurched as she briefly glanced through it, noting details it had about her personal life and habits. Tearing her eyes further down, she noticed that towards the bottom of the page was a brief listing of effects retrieved and which box they were filed under.

Anna started hearing shouts and footsteps approaching down the hall to the storage room. She hurried over and pried open the door on the cabinet of her stuff. Ignoring the clothes and wallet, she pulled out an elegant silver pocket. Briefly she checked it was undamaged and unopened before sliding it into her pocket.

The footsteps were closer now, likely less than a minute before they’d reach the door. Thinking quickly, she clapped her hands together and performed a quick transmutation. Ten seconds later she was holding a set of fragmentation grenades. As she heard the footsteps approach she pulled the pins while transmuting a hole in the floor. She rolled the grenades to the door and leaped through to the lower level.

Sealing the floor with a quick clap of her hands she turned to address the new floor. The explosion of the grenades shook dust and chips off the ceiling, and she dimly heard screams through the concrete.

Anna ran on, seeking the stairwell now. Coming to the cross of a similar set of hallways she paused and saw a large group of soldiers slamming what looked like a steel battering ram onto a door. She almost gave herself away with a small laugh, realizing they still hadn’t even managed to get into her cell yet.

Leaning around the corner and lining up her rifle, she unleashed a volley of shots into the group of soldiers. Two fell down with startled cries. The rest of the group dropped the ram and started to retreat down the hallway. They took turns, one soldier laying down covering fire on Anna, while the rest would back up before switching. Still, the woman managed to find a few gaps in their fire patterns to squeeze off a shot or two, dropping yet more soldiers.

By the time the group had managed to retreat around the corner at the end of the hallway, she had decimated them. Only two soldiers remained, awkwardly leaning their guns around the corner and firing blindly for safety.

Not liking the odds of charging down a straight hallway with no cover, she leapt across to the other hallway down the floor to try and flank them. Anna took a moment to reload her rifle. Just as she finished she started when a small metal orb bounced through the doorway, her mind lurching as she realized it was a live grenade. Springing into action as fast as possible she swiped it up with her metal hand and chucked it back from whence it came. The explosion came barely a quarter second later, singing off the arm of her coat and nicking her with shrapnel. Luckily nothing debilitating however.

Not wasting a chance she charged around the corner and started firing her rifle. A smaller group of guards had tried to flank her, but most lay in piles of ragged bloody piles from the grenade. Still, she blasted the few managing to stand up and trying to point their guns at her.

Sprinting down the hallway, she managed to turn the corner and face the last of the original party of guards. The dyke managed to shoot one, but the other dropped his gun and charged in close with a knife. They spun into a deadly melee as the soldier slashed and hacked wildly. The woman took a slash to her right elbow but only smirked as it glanced off the automail. Still, she dodged and blocked most of his attacks with the stock of her rifle.

After a brutal frenzy, the guard made a fatal mistake. He overextended on a lunging stab to Anna’s side. She dodged around and capitalized by slamming the butt of her gun into his nose. It cracked into a spray of blood under the force. As he fell Anna swung the rifle back onto her shoulder and slammed a bullet into his head.

All in all, the fight on that floor barely took a minute or two. However, it left Anna’s ears ringing, and she was covered in soot, blood and grime. Not all of the blood even from the soldiers around her. Her breath was coming in short gasps and she was practically quivering with adrenaline. Still, she pushed on. Knowing the floor above was the fifth basement level, there were at least four more floors of soldiers above to get through.

The alchemists plan was very simple. Remove the problem of reinforcements. Running over to the stairwell she listened carefully. She could already hear shouts from multiple groups of soldiers as they streamed down from the upper floors. Digging deep within her well of energy she clapped her hands and begun a large but crucial transmutation.

A giant flash of lightning lit up the dimly lit stairwell. Shouts of alarm could be heard from the guards above. Slowly the concrete steps started turning white and sandy. Specks of dust started cracking from them. Rising from her crouch Anna gave a kick to the bottom step which started a chain reaction. All the way up the stairwell the stairs started to crack and give way under their own weight. Anna leaped back out the door as tons of rubble crashed into the ground. Soldiers screams were cut off by sickening crunches into the concrete floor below.

Stepping over the rubble, Anna did a quick sweep for any hostile soldiers likely to get up again. A grim half smile spread over her face. The troops within the facility were now cut off and isolated. They had no way she knew of to move between floors and reinforce each other. Anna on the other hand was able to move freely between them with alchemy. She could pop in, pick of a surprised and alone group of soldiers before popping back out. The mobility a crushing advantage. The cat was truly out among the pigeons, and it was going to be fucking bloody.

************************************************

Toni was sitting in the quinjet in the iron maiden suit, nervously tapping her fingers as the team waited to approach the military base. The rest of the team shooting not so surreptitious glances her way. She ignored them and kept fiddling awkwardly, never comfortable with stillness under the best of circumstances.  

“Ma’am, I’ve kept up observation of the enemy base. I would suggest you look at the video feeds. An explosion just occured in the parking lot and I’m detecting gunfire. Facial recognition shows an image of Miss Neumann under fire.” Jarvis’s mechanical voice pinged in her ear.

Toni, swiped up the video feed even as she stood from her seat and slammed a gauntleted fist on the exit ramp of the jet. A shout came up from Captain Rogers but she barely heard it as her gaze stared at the feed. It showed Anna, crouched behind a truck, taking fire from one of the guard towers stationed around the corners of the base. She was covered in blood, dirt and smoke rising hazily into the sunrise. Some feeling she chose not to think about clenched in her gut.  

“Objective is under fire, I’m going ahead super friends.” She hollered out to quinjet as she leaped off the ramp and into the air. Rogers yelled some fool mother hen thing about waiting for backup at her over the comms, but she ignored it. The suit’s thrusters kicked in hard and she rocketed ahead.

Less than two minutes later the compound crept into view over the horizon. The main building was a low flat square in the middle, obviously leading into an underground base. A chain link fence backed up with sandbags surrounded the perimeter. There was only one entrance in or out. Each corner of the square lot had a guard tower with groups of black clad soldiers scurrying about. Storage crates and barriers dotted the yard. A parking lot by the back of the main building was full of unmarked jeeps and hummers, several of which were on fucking fire, like it was a fucking warzone.

The cybernetic heroine sucked in a breath as one of the guard towers exploded in a gout of flame. “Jarvis, weapons free, locate Anna.” She barked. A flashing alert directed her attention to the middle of the yard.

Anna was crouched behind a strangely uniform and fresh looking wall of earth a couple dozen yards away from the main building of the compound. A hail of bullets were slamming into the wall from the remaining guard tower on her side of the building. Blood was streaming from cuts on her head and left arm. Her right jacket sleeve looked burned off. The engineer saw a sexy metal prosthesis that Toni will later admit somehow may have gotten her _slightly_ hard in the middle of a firefight.

Toni’s eyes boggled when she realized the nutbar that was her soulmate was holding a _fucking RPG_. The woman was calmly reloading it from a stash of rockets at her feet. Seemingly unperturbed by the whole, you know, bullets and explosions thing going on. Fucking tattoo artist her. fucking. ass. We are so fucking talking about this later she thought, charging a repulsor and blasting a goon trying to flank her around the side.

Anna barely looked up, spinning over her wall in a flash and launching the RPG into the nearest guard tower. Fire billowed and debris showered across the compound as men screamed. Red alerts flashed on the suits HUD as the guards in the last two towers started running across the yard and charging around the building to flank Anna’s wall from both sides.

Toni engaged the thrusters and dove and swooped, firing at the soldiers flanking Anna while avoiding return fire. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Anna clap her hands together and a fucking metal blade shot out of that fucking _sexy_ arm. God, to get her tools on that puppy, she salivated.

The engineer paused momentarily in the fire fight as her soulmate literally fucking leapt over 15 yards to stab one of the rent-a-cops in the chest. She stared dumbfounded as the woman, looking like a fucking bloodstained valkyrie spun and slashed through throats, arms and legs. The soldiers were cut down like wheat. Toni honestly couldn’t be sure if she was horrified, scared or turned the fuck on, but it was some _strong_ combination of the three.

Turning back to her own fight she blasted the last few moving goons before a silence settled on the compound. The moans of the soldiers still filtered over the air, and a faint alarm sounded from inside the main building, but otherwise all was still.

The genius hovered over to Anna, watching as she clapped her hands again (what was with that?!) and the arm turned back to normal. Landing fist to the ground in classic iron maiden pose she flipped her visor up. “Sup, T-1000, seems you may not have really needed the save!” She shouted to her soulmate.

The woman looked stunned and grabbed her metal arm seemingly nervously ( _seriously_?! A giant fucking _warzone_ didn’t phase her, but meeting her soulmate throws her off her game?!).

“Uh, well, a wise soldier never turns away reinforcements. How are y’all?” Anna awkwardly responded. Toni felt a burn over her right shoulder as the bond engaged and Anna’s emotions started filtering through. She sensed exhaustion, wonder and deep abiding rage.

Toni was just about to say something snarky back when a series of darts slammed into Anna’s chest. Toni’s soulmate stumbled and fell to one knee as Brock fuckin Rumlow and STRIKE team delta burst through the entrance to the compound. “Target neutralized. Avengers on site, please advise.” was said by the cretin as Anna fell to the ground and passed out.

Toni got real fuckin pissed about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a word about the very tropey russian endearments from Nat. I totally acknowledge it would be more authentic to put it in Cyrillic. I'm just doing an executive decision that I like having a more phonetic spelling, since I do not speak or know russian and I think it makes the lines flow better. That said, open to feedback.
> 
> kotyonok = Endearment meaning kitten, or kitty as I'm informed by the finest google translate scholars.


	4. Debriefing (not the fun kind)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hints of backstory. Some angst. Peppers a BAMF. The brats are unleashed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI, this chapter ends up discussing some pretty heavy (and possibly triggering) things. Specifically true to life unethical medical practices engaged in by the US that were one of the reasons Anna has not now and will never trust shield. Even pre-hydra. If that's a concern, skip to where Pepper comes in.
> 
> Also: Whew, take a breath. I wanna balance the angst out a bit more. The next few chapters are going to be much lighter, fluffier and smuttier as Anna is introduced to the tower. Let me know if you have any specific desires you'd want to see incorporated. I'm flexible in my very rough outlining ;)

************************************************  
_New York City SHIELD facility, present day_

Toni was still fucking pissed, even eight hours later. She’d been good though, controlled her temper like the collected badass that she is.

Okay, maybe she’d punched that shitass Rumlow and broke his fucking smary pig-nose, but that was it. Details, y'know (okay, maybe Cap had pulled her off him before she could follow it up and the suits had made off with Anna in the ensuing shouting match, but y’know, details).

...But one more goddamn minute of dealing with these useless bureaucratic glorified secret agent secretaries was liable to make her blow a gasket.

“Miss Stark, I’m sorry, but we cannot release the woman. We have direct orders from councilman Pierce and the world security council. As per standard SHIELD protocol for gifted individuals, she needs to be debriefed and to have a full index assessment. Including full psychological and medical evaluation. It will take weeks. I’m going to have to ask you to leave now or I will have you removed.” Sneered the toadie at the front desk of the SHIELD facility.

Toni contented herself with slamming her palms down on the desk, taking a deep breath, and only a single loud “fuck you goddamn useless motherfuckers.” Turning around, she pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed the only woman badass enough to tell the WSC to go fuck themselves.

“Hey Pep, it’s me. Yeah, she’s at the New York SHIELD facility. Uh huh, yeah, you guessed it. Bring the sharks. Make sure they have fucking laser beams attached to their fucking heads. Thank you sexy spice. Your the best!”

****************************************************  
_Shield Interrogation Room, New York Facility, Present Day_

Anna once again felt herself coming back to groggy consciousness. This time in a highly uncomfortable chair. Her mouth was dry and every muscle on her body ached with strain. A ragged pain ran down her side, and she guessed she had at least one bruised or broken rib.

Still though, she smiled internally when she realized she could still feel her two soulbonds. One was distant, and she could get the barest hint of unease from it. The other was closer, probably in the same building and burning with frustration and impatience. It convinced her that wherever she was, she was at least moderately safer than the base she woke up in before.

The woman opened her eyes and looked around her, jumping when she realized she was in a blank concrete interrogation room. A mild mannered bald man in a suit stared at her over the rim of his glasses.

Anna smirked, wincing as she moved her split lip. She gestured with her hands, cuffed together and chained to the floor. “So, I guess your my welcoming committee for the men in black? Then they start the enhanced interrogation?” She questioned mock enthusiastically.

“Miss Neumann, I’m Agent Sitwell of SHIELD. I assure you, we mean you no harm. We merely need to debrief and evaluate you after the... events at the facility you were privy to.” He drily assured.

“Ah, right the ‘events’ after I was kidnapped by unknown soldiers. Nice euphemism. Unfortunately, I’m not wearing underwear now, so debriefing me might be a tad difficult.” Anna quipped sarcastically.

Agent Sitwell’s nose scrunched in annoyance. He clasped his hands in front of him before beginning.

“Well then, Miss Neumann, the big question up front. How did a Tattoo artist from downtown New York fight their way out of that facility, alone and unarmed against over a hundred trained soldiers?”

“I watch a lot of action movies.” She responded mock seriously.

Sitwell’s eyes bulged. “Action...movies?” He queried dumbly.

“Oh yeah, Die Hard’s one of my favorites. It was great inspiration and a wonderful tutorial for being a self saving badass. Yippee ki yay, motherfucker!” Anna joked back.

Agent killjoy sighed in exasperation. “Well then, what about the...abilities you displayed? Shaping earth, creating objects in a flash of lighting?” He asked with a frustrated huff.

“That’s my space pirate wizard magic.” Anna harrumphed with an utterly deadpan serious tone. In truth, only half joking, but knowing he wouldn’t find the grain of truth.

The evil capitalist lizard in a suit beside her let his head slump to the desk and groaned. She faintly heard him huff “Not another one, it's like a flashback from New Mexico.” He sat up and looked her in the eyes again.

“Okay, you know what, I can see your being uncooperative. I remind you that impeding a federal investigation is a capital offence, so I urge you to actually answer the next question, or you will be charged. What do you know of the classified US military program, project rebirth?” He queried, his eyes slanting menacingly.

Anna’s heart gave a lurch as she realized she was in deep, deep shit. She tried to play it dumb, not that that has worked out terribly well in the past for her but go with what you know. “Duhhhhhh, I dunno, me no smart, me know nothing.” The woman joked exaggeratedly.

“Miss Neumann, we’re the good guys. We work for the government and liaise with the Avengers. You can trust us. If say, someone had stolen classified US military records, we could cut a deal if they only shared them.” Agent shitstain asked, trying for reassuring, but the greedy glint in his eyes totally betraying him.

Anna sighed as she slowly realized they might actually know something of what had went on. Chances weren’t good that she’d get away from this scott free, not with the suits getting an eye for the carrot on the stick. A chill settled into her bones and a hysterical laugh started bubbling out her throat. Sitwell kept staring at her and she struggled to breath as she giggled.

“Trust? Trust?! Oh, Agent my agent. You, my friend, are a riot. A funny, funny guy. Pure hilarity. Trust the US government with highly unethical and dangerous medical research. Oh dear, that’s a great one. I’ll have to remember that joke for later.” Anna hissed, with a hard edged humour tingeing her voice.

Sitwell’s eyes flashed with a cold edge. “So, you do know something about project rebirth then?” He said with an evil smirk.

Anna barked out an amused laugh. “Every school child knows something about project rebirth sweetheart. Captain America is a big deal in the ole US of A after all. They also know the governments’ been trying to reproduce it. The hulk had to come from somewhere after all.” She answered.

Agent actuallyalizardpersoninasuit walked around the table and leveled a harsh stare at her. His eyes bore into her. “I am not joking around with you Artificer. You will tell us what you know about reproducing Project Rebirth, or there will be consequences. Comply, and you will be rewarded. You can trust us.” He practically growled at her.

Sensing she was on the edge of a gaping maw, Anna met his gaze with her own look of utter disdain. “Have you heard of the Tuskegee experiment, agent? Well, long story short, the U.S. Public Health Service decided, more or less just for funzies to infect 400 black men with syphilis.” She scoffed, pausing briefly with a vicious sneer curling her lips.

“They wanted to see the natural progression of the disease. Even though effective treatments were found a decade after it started, they wanted the data more than they cared about the lives of the people in their care. They lied to the subjects. Told them they didn’t have syphilis, that there were no drugs they could take. They actively prevented them from receiving treatment and care anywhere else. By the end of the study, more than 300 of the men were dead. Many infected their partners as well. They were good people, and you fucks tortured and killed them.” She was growling and tears were forming around the edges of her eyes.

“Or what about the AIDS crisis. Fucking Reagan fucking laughing behind closed doors, joking about why should we care about the queers getting killed by the goddamn plague. Keeping their silence and refusing to fund treatment properly. He told the CDC to fucking ‘look pretty and do as little as possible.’ Half my friends died in 5 years asshole. Because you fucks purposefully delayed and downplayed the response to an epidemic.” Tears were falling freely from her face, mixing with the blood and soot, still not washed off from the previous battle.

“Tell me again you utter _shitstain_ , that I should trust the US government to conduct medical research ethically and responsibly. I fucking _dare_ you.” Anna growled as she let the silence hang. At the back of her mind she was dimly aware of her two soulbonds growing agitated and coming closer, but couldn’t focus on that at the moment.

Sitwell momentarily looked taken aback. However, his face quickly hardened. “I guess we’re going to do this the hard way then.” He said with a sigh, before curling a hand behind Anna’s head and slamming her face on the desk. Her nose cracked and broke with the blow as her head and vision spun. Sitting up, blood started to pore down her face as she blinked her eyes.

Anna cursed and spat at Sitwell. A glob of bloody phlegm spoiling his perfect suit jacket.

“You will tell us what you know! Give us the serum!” He shouted, spittle spraying the woman.

“Go fuck yourself pig!” She retorted back as time seemed to slow. Anna watched as the agents’ muscles coiled and his shifting body began to propel his fist towards her face. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the interrogation room door opening, but she couldn’t who was entering. Her face snapped to the side as pain blossomed over her eye and blood sprayed over the floor. The woman’s eye started swelling and gumming shut as Sitwell pulled back for another punch.

The agent was interrupted however by a commanding feminine voice echoing through the room. A voice accustomed to having to shout down blowhards at the boardroom table. A beautiful voice accustomed to being obeyed and respected.

“What the everliving _fuck_ do you think your doing agent?!” Shouted the voice, dripping with disdain.

Anna’s and Sitwell’s eyes were drawn to the now open door. A familiar redhead striding through in an impeccably cut suit, stupidly expensive heels and carrying a briefcase. The woman was practically radiating power, prestige and molten anger. A shorter brunette in dusty jeans and black t shirt following behind. Her body language screamed forced casualness, but she eyed the proceedings with a hard edge. Lastly a team of oppressively formal, glowering suited lawyers brought up the rear.

Anna was in quite a lot of pain at the moment. However, the goddess busting down the door may have gotten her, just a little turned on as she imagined those creamy stockinged calfs pressding her to the floor.

Agent Sitwell on the other hand, paled, white as a ghost. He looked entirely like he had just shit himself. “Uhhh, j-just interrogating a suspect M-Ma’am.” He stuttered out.

“Oh, really? Because what it looks like your doing is torturing a US citizen, on US soil. A US citizen with no criminal background, who just escaped kidnapping. If those cuts and bruises are anything to go by, she has been denied medical attention as well. What was it they told us they were doing to our soulmate at the front desk Toni? A debriefing and evaluation?” Angrily snarked the redhead.

“Yes, Pep, indeed they did.” Responded Toni, clearly happy to take a back seat, while Pepper was being her badass self, solving the problem.

“Good, because this doesn’t look like a debriefing, so much as a shake down. Toni, please acquire us a copy of the security tapes so we can see what horrendous things this woman may have done.” The woman beside her whipped out a phone and started tapping away. “You know, to make you fear for your life so that you’d hit an unarmed woman chained to the floor in self defense.” Pepper continued, her words dripping with scorn.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, you need to leave. I have direct orders from Council-” Sitwell tried to interject.

“Councilman Pierce. I know agent. I’m here to tell you that those orders have now been superseded. What’s been done here is illegal on so many levels. Believe me, SHIELD _will_ be spending the next decade trying to bail itself out from the lawsuits we will be bringing. Let alone the public outcry you’ll be facing should we decide it necessary to inform the public of what's been done to the soulmate of one of the world's foremost heroes.” The redhead took a breath to collect all the venom and disdain she had.

“However, even before that I must remind you that your arrest of Miss Neumann is unlawful according to the charter founding the Avengers initiative.” She hissed out, before pointing to the lawyer at the front of the group. “Max, would you kindly inform the man of the terms surrounding the handling and arrest of gifted individuals?” She intoned with a hint of mischief.

“Yes Miss Potts. Avengers charter, section 54C, sections 108 to 127 describe what should be done in the case that a gifted individual is apprehended while the Avengers are completing a mission. It states that the Avengers will conduct at least a preliminary evaluation and containment of the individual. Thereafter they are to deliver a report to the Director of SHIELD. Should they have additional questions, they can request additional tests as needed, but they cannot compel the surrender of the individual to SHIELD custody. We have copies printed for your perusal if you have any questions.” The lawyer Max drily delivered.

Pepper nodded enthusiastically. “Thank you Max,” She responded “-and thank you for your service Agent.” She snarked at Sitwell. “Your job is done here, we will be bringing Miss Neumann back with us for our preliminary evaluation. Take it up with Fury if you have further objections. Get those cuffs off her.” Pepper finished, letting the proverbial mic drop and spinning on her heel out of the room.

Anna shot Sitwell a wry grin of victory. His hands were trembling with rage as he unlocked the cuffs and she sauntered out of the room, following the exiting crowd.

The alchemist joined her soulmates as they walked down the hall. She huffed a laugh as Pepper offered her an honest to god's old fashioned handkerchief. “Thank you Ma’am. For everything.” She offered, pressing the kerchief to her bleeding nose.

Pepper gave her a small, entirely too satisfied smile that made butterflies flutter in Anna’s stomach. “Nothing to thank me for. With Toni around, It’s not every day I get to save a pretty damsel in distress. I gotta take these opportunities when they come around.” She joked with a smirk.

Toni huffed an indignant laugh. “Gotta say Pep, that was some damn fine damsel saving. I seriously got a stiffy watching you crush Shitwell’s balls in your hand there. Goddamn.” She replied, wiggling her eyebrows exaggeratedly.

Anna had nothing to say to that beyond letting out a deep guffaw.

Pepper gave an indignant squak.“Mind where you say things like that! Come on Anna, lets get you home to the tower and work this out. I don’t trust these people.” She chided as they exited the building.

The trio of soulmates slid into the backseat of a black luxury sedan, while the gaggle of lawyers followed in a series of other nondescript vehicles. Pepper sat on the far side, with Toni and Anna slightly jammed together as the driver pulled the vehicle away from the curb. For her part Anna mostly tried to hunch in on herself and not bleed all over her soulmates. An awkward silence settled into the air.

Predictably, Toni was the first to break it. “So...the terminator has a dayjob as a tattoo artist?” The woman sassed with an upraised brow.

Anna giggled and shot the billionaire a look. “Oh Shellhead, like you can talk shit. A girls gotta have a bit of mystique. It’s presumptuous to have the sex toy collection on the mantle the first time you bring a date home.” The dyke joked with a waggle of her eyebrows.

Pepper groaned and smacked her face into her hands. “Oh god, there’s two brats to deal with. What sins did I commit in my past life to deserve these shenanigans.” She sobbed.

“Oh shut up, you know you like it Pep’s. Gives you a reason to bend me over the kitchen counter and make me squeal.” Toni sassed back.

“Come now. Clearly Toni started it, she’s the bad influence! I’m a pure, naive maiden, white as the driven snow!” Anna argued with an affronted noise.

Despite herself Pepper grinned widely at their antics. “I bet. And that gorgeous lady kicking a girl till she came all over the floor was totally a doppelganger right Anna?” The CEO said as she gave her a challenging quirk of her eyebrow.

“I plead the fifth Ma’am, and volunteer for whatever punishment you may desire.” The alchemist responded with mock sincerity.

The trio burst into giggles as silence once more settled into the car.

Pepper, ever the industrious one brought the tone back to a little more sombre place. “So Anna, I guess you probably have some idea who we are prior to the whole soulbond thing, but tell us about yourself?” The redhead asked.

Anna sighed, considering for a second. Ultimately, she thought, it seemed like her secrets were more or less going to have to come out. At least some of them. Also, frankly her eyes were sore, aching and beyond dry. She held up her metal hand in a one minute gesture as she fished a set of cosmetic contacts from her eyes.

When she turned to face the pair of previously brown orbs were replaced by deep garnet red. Not the sometimes unnerving scarlet you would see in a person with albinism. Where a lack of pigment caused the blood in the eyes to shine through. Hers were deeply colored, flecks of gold and green giving an unearthly shimmer to them. The effect was arresting and both other women sucked in a breath of surprise.

Anna felt a nervous flutter in her belly, and wrapped a hand behind her neck to fidget. “So... guess the best place to start would be me mentioning...I’m kinda sorta an alien? Like Biologically I’m almost identical to humans. But I’m not from earth...and I have some add-ons?” She awkwardly explained, almost whispering in the quiet car.

“Oh, please tell me you have tentacles?! I’ve got SOOOO many unfulfilled fantasies we could try!” Toni said with an excited squeal. Pepper for her part let out an embarrassed squak and blushed deep red.

Anna let out a series of hysterical giggles. However she expected this conversation to go, that was certainly not it. She took a deep breath and gathered herself once the giggles subsided. “Uhm, no. Pure regular human from a physical point of view. Think more pseudo-magic powers. I used them to make an ovipositor once though, so I’m certain we could work something out.” She explained with a smarmy wink.

Pepper gave another long suffering groan as the car pulled into the Avengers tower parking garage.


End file.
